It’s still the economy, stupid.
Every month the Labor Department announces big job gains. But national polls show Americans still worry about the economy.
Pollsters for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal asked Americans in June about the issues that would drive their votes in the midterm elections. At the top of the list were health care (38 percent) and the economy and jobs (37 percent). Health care is all about cost and really is a reflection of economic anxiety.
Why are Americans still so anxious about the economy? And what impact will these concerns have on the outcome of the midterm results?
The monthly increase in jobs obscures the problems middle-class Americans continue to have making their monthly mortgage payments, feeding their families and paying medical bills.
President Trump claims we have the best economy ever but the numbers say he’s wrong.
An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute indicates that the median income in the U.S. actually declined by 0.8 percent between 2000 and 2017. According to the authors, “the bottom half of households are still falling short of 2000 income levels.”
The EPI research indicates that both men and women have good reasons to worry about money. In 2000, men working full time for the whole year earned $53,175. Income for men actually went down to $52,175. Income for women actually increased during the same period from $39,200 to $41,977 but they still earned a lot less than men.
Middle-class Americans have fallen behind and they won’t catch up soon. Inflation continues to eat up wage gains. Inflation will continue to increase as the Federal Reserve Board raises interest rates. The Trump administration tariff increases on foreign goods entering the U.S. will also raise consumer prices.
Research by the U.S. Department of Labor indicates the inflation rate rose by 2.7 percent between August 2017 and August 2018. Energy prices rose by 10 percent.
Judge Brett Kavanagh’s Supreme Court confirmation battle and the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election dominate the news. But Democrats should avoid this low hanging fruit to focus on a populist economic message that includes an increase in the minimum wage, tax cuts for middle-income Americans and affordable health care.
The opportunity for Democrats is the failure of Trump to keep his promise to restore economic security for working families. These voters, many living in the Industrial Midwest paved his path to the White House.
The tax plan proposed by the president and enacted by Congress is the only big economic GOP initiative. But it stiffed the working families who supported the president and his party in 2016. The administration has also undermined the Affordable Care Act without developing a substitute that would cover the medical needs of financially hard-pressed middle-class Americans.
Endangered congressional Republicans hope their tax law will bail them out this November. It’s more of a fantasy than a hope.
Trump’s tax plan is an insult to the forgotten Americans who made him president. Why? Because an analysis by the Brookings Tax Policy Center reveals the lion’s share of the benefits from the president’s tax reform plan go to wealthy Americans and big corporations. By 2025, 25 percent of the benefits from the tax cut will go to the top 1 percent. Two thirds (66 percent) of the benefits will go to the top-earning 20 percent of households.
A new poll for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee indicates that voters by a two to one margin (60 percent to 31 percent) believe the new tax law benefits rich Americans and large corporation middle-class Americans.
The formal name of the new tax law is the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. But progressives justifiably call it the Trump Tax Scam. The law significantly raises the federal budget deficit. The GOP then uses the increase in the deficit to justify the need to cut spending on Social Security and Medicare.
The scam is Robin Hood in reverse since the law is a boon for wealthy Americans and the cuts in entitlement programs are a bust for working families and the poor. The analysis from the RSCC survey states “most voters believe that the GOP wants to cut back on these programs to provide tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy”.
Democrats need to ardently preach the importance of economic justice which is the bridge the party needs to unite poor and middle class voters who are victims of GOP indifference.
A cloud of sex and spy scandals hangs over Washington, D.C. But the real scandal outside the Beltway is the rigged economic system that has left hard working families out in the cold. To win, Democrats must resist the temptations inside the Beltway to focus on scandal, so the party can address the economic security concerns that are the real stressors for working families.
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